Vermicomposting of Banana Pseudostem and Maize Fodder (Waste) Using Eudrilus eugeniae

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the Agriculture Research Station, College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Jabugam during three consecutive seasons of the years 2015-16 and 2016-17. This was to evaluate banana Pseudostem and maize fodder waste with and without cow dung and Anubhav biodegradable bacterial consortium (ABBC) for it bi-product in terms of vermi-composting, time required for degradation and the nutritive quality of vermicompost. The experiment consisted of eight treatments and conducted in RBD with three replications. Results shows that, the treatment Banana pseudostem + 5% Cow dung + Anubhav biodegradable bacterial consortium and the treatment Maize fodder waste + 5% Cow dung + Anubhav biodegradable bacterial consortium were significantly higher  for N, P, K content during all the three seasons and in pooled analysis with less number of days to harvest and high recovery. While, microbial count were recorded maximum in banana Pseudostem based vermicompost than maize fodder waste. Overall, vermicompost produced from the banana Pseudostem and maize fodder waste by using ABBC @ 1 lit/t and 5 % cow dung provided the major nutrients in more balanced proportion. The main perspectives of this study is to decrease the environmental pollution by making vermicompost from banana pseudostem waste or maize fodder (waste) instead of dumping on road side or burning or left in the field and also reduce the use of chemicals by using vermicompost.